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Aircraft Was Enroute To Oil Platform

Unocal Corporation
announced Wednesday that contact was lost with an Era Aviation
helicopter that was in route to a drilling location in the Gulf of
Mexico Tuesday evening at about 7:15 p.m. CST. The helicopter, with
eight passengers and two crew members aboard, was last contacted
about 70 miles south of Galveston while transporting workers to a
drill ship. The sea vessel was in transit to a drill site i200
miles south of Galveston. The helicopter operator, Era Aviation of
Lake Charles (LA), is under contract to Unocal.

Search and rescue operations are under way by the U.S. Coast
Guard units, based out of Corpus Christi (TX), and by private air
and sea transportation services that are lending their support to
the search effort. The U.S. Coast Guard's Operation Center in New
Orleans is coordinating and overseeing the Coast Guard's search and
rescue response to this incident. Helicopter and fixed-wing
aircraft rescue crews from Coast Guard air stations in Corpus
Christi and Houston, as well as the Coast Guard Cutter Manta, an
87-foot patrol boat from Freeport, are searching for the missing
aircraft and crew.

The passengers included four employees of Halliburton, one from
Dril-Quip, two from Offshore Energy Services, all contracted to
Unocal; and one Unocal employee. Company officials are in the
process of contacting next of kin; their names will not be released
until then.

Update: Victims and wreckage were reportedly
located on Wednesday, recovery efforts are underway and no
survivors are expected to be found.